


Stand Without Flinching

by SinkingCanoe (CavalryofWoah)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Mental Link, Minor Character Death, Pidge kills Lotor sorry not sorry, Place Slowly Becomes Home People Slowly Become Family, Team as Family, not super graphic but kinda suggestive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 11:36:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9818627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CavalryofWoah/pseuds/SinkingCanoe
Summary: “She's my princess, and my friend,” Pidge replied, unsteady but certain. Unprepared but vicious. “You can't have her.”“She is nothing to you!” Lotor shouted, fists clenched. He stayed in motion, pacing half-circles that came ever closer.“She's my family. That's everything to me.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> “When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ”  
> ― Jim Butcher
> 
> Anyways so I just needed an add-on to that scene in season 1 where Pidge says "She's not OUR princess" bc I'm always a fan of 'place slowly becomes home, people slowly become family'. I couldn't find it, so I wrote it.  
> I guess my new thing is super short platonic Pidge+teammate oneshots.

Pidge panted, humid air clogging in her screaming lungs. Her hands shook, her legs threatened to collapse. It would be… _so easy_ to give up.

She’d done so much; she’d been fighting so long. Surely it wasn't dishonorable to stop now. Surely she'd done her duty. She could stop.

Pidge growled, clenching her jaw. “Get out of my head.”

Lotor smiled, charming if not for the blood coating his too-sharp teeth. “Let go, little paladin. You can rest now.”

“I'm not going to give up,” she insisted.

Pidge could hear Allura’s faint, gurgling breathing; punctured lungs and a multitude of small injuries kept her pinned to the floor, helpless.

Shiro was banging on the door, shouting and screaming like the sound would make him strong enough to do the impossible. Even his arm wasn't getting through that barrier, apparently.

The rest of her team crackled in her ear, reassurances and promises of aid even as they fought for their own lives.

They made her strong. Pidge wasn't fighting for her own life--she was fighting for theirs.

“So determined to protect,” Lotor whispered, creeping closer in a drifting pattern. “But you can't save everyone.”

As if on cue, Hunk whimpered over the comm., and Keith shouted for him.

“I can try,” Pidge replied, never taking her eyes off the threat. “Hang in there, Hunk.”

“The choice is simple, little paladin. The princess… or your family.”

A hologram activated with a wave of Lotor’s hand. There, in chains, was her father. He looked so tired; worn down and aged a few centuries by over a year of imprisonment and slavery. Manual labor hadn't been kind to Mr. Holt.

Pidge jerked her gaze away from the image, back to Lotor. He'd advanced a few steps in her distraction, but she raised her bayard higher and balanced her weight. It was harder to breathe, harder to focus. Her mind was spinning out in a wild tangle of _Dad, Dad, so close, Dad..._

“Choose,” Lotor said, his voice slimy and cold.

“N-no,” Pidge wheezed, “no.”

“Why is this hard?” her enemy cajoled. “This is your family; your father. What is she compared to that?”

“No.”

“She's a princess of a planet that doesn't exist and a people that were destroyed ten thousand years ago! She's a relic of the past, an unnecessary annoyance!” Lotor swung wildly from rage to pleading, “Give her to me, and your father can go free.”

Tendrils of his influence plucked at Pidge's mind--they insisted that his command was perfectly reasonable, was in fact in her best interest. Why shouldn’t she listen to him? Allura was nothing to her.

Pidge back up a step, keeping her body between the snake-like prince and Allura’s prone form.

“She's my princess, and my friend,” Pidge replied, unsteady but certain. Unprepared but vicious. “You can't _have_ her _._ ”

“She is _nothing_ to you!” Lotor shouted, fists clenched. He stayed in motion, pacing half-circles that came ever closer.

“She's my _family_. That's everything to me.”

“Why,” Lotor cried out in frustration, quintessence crackling off his skin, “won't you just give up?”

Pidge smirked. “Why do you _need_ me to? Big, bad galra prince can't handle one injured paladin?”

 _“Pidge!”_ Shiro begged in her ear, barely audible over the pounding of his fists on the reinforced door. It echoed through the room Pidge and the princess were trapped in, a cacophony of panic. _“Pidge, run!”_

Pidge ignored the way Shiro’s adrenalin, Hunk’s pain, and Keith's exhaustion pulled at her through the paladin bond--Lance alone was a source of steadiness.

She could feel him like a phantom limb, an extra body that was hers but not-hers, lying on a rooftop with regular breathing and merciless intent.

Pidge reached into the paladin bond, asked for strength, and despite their struggle all four of her partners shared theirs. Keith gave her his ferocity, Hunk his ability to push through toxic fear. Lance lent her the calm, careful beat of his heart, evening out her own so she could think.

Shiro shoved at her the only thing keeping him going: the will to live, despite the odds, and the determination to _not let these bastards win._

 _If you can't run,_ they told her, **_fight_** _._

The paladins’ mental bond helped her throw off the lingering magic, and she was ready.

Pidge didn't wait for Lotor to craft a reply; she made the first move.

Pidge swiped her bayard at him twice before his reflexes kicked in-- _thanks, Keith_ \--and when he went to blast her in return Lotor hit empty air. Every move he made, Pidge was one step ahead.

The real challenge was keeping him away from the princess. Relentless defense had gotten them cornered in the first place, but Pidge couldn't leave Allura vulnerable.

Hold out and hope for rescue, or go on offense and hope to win? Pidge wasn't the best at stand-and-fight combat. Her bayard and her skills were suited to evasion and sabotage, not going head to head with an angry druid.

Still, she had no time left to stall.

Pidge committed to offense.

Instead of fleeing every attack, Pidge deflected and responded, trapping Lotor with his own momentum and shortsightedness. Even teleportation could be predicted, if the target was predictable, and as long as he was focused on Pidge he wasn't focused on Allura.

She stopped telling herself she was buying time, stopped telling herself _just hold out a little longer_. She had to fight to win.

And because Pidge was relentless, and vicious, and stubborn, she did.

Because Pidge would do _anything_ for her family, she did.

Lotor choked to death on his own blood while Pidge opened the door for Shiro, and by the time Keith and Lance arrived, supporting Hunk together, his eyes had glazed over and his fingers had stopped twitching.

Shiro was the least injured, and with Pidge's help he got Allura in a careful hold, trying not to disturb her ribs.

Allura was incoherent at best, drifting in and out with unfocused eyes and pained sounds. She called for Pidge, panicked, and Pidge fell back from her front guard position to hold Allura’s hand and reassure her until she faded out again.

All of the paladins were worried, and despite his broken leg even Hunk straightened up as best he could, alert for danger. Coran guided them out from the helm of the Castle, directing them around the remaining soldiers on board based on Pidge's ongoing scans.

At that moment, Pidge couldn't care less about the scans, about the troop and supply counts, even about the prisoner ID logs. Allura was dying in Shiro’s arms. All that mattered was getting her to a healing pod.

The retreat faded away from Pidge in flickers of time, parts of the process crystal clear and others just gone. She felt like she should be falling apart, but there was fresh blood on her bayard and her hands were steady.

Pidge watched Coran hustle around, carefully removing the knife in Allura’s side despite her scream. They had left it still staunching the bleeding until aid was available. Shiro was opening several pods, Keith was stripping Hunk’s leg armor off while he gritted his teeth in pain.

Pidge only really came back to herself when Lance started trying to stuff her in a pod, too.

“Wha--no, stop! Allura, I need to-”

“Allura is gonna be fine, and so is Hunk,” Lance soothed, hoping he was telling the truth. “You need to heal up too, Pidgey. I can feel those burns, buddy.”

“No, I have to-”

“Pidge.” She looked up at Shiro where he was resting against an empty pod, black and white armor coated in Allura’s blood. “Please get in the healing pod. We'll keep her safe while you rest.”

Pidge hesitated, so exhausted she would cry if there was any water left in her body. “Promise?”

Shiro looked back at her, unwavering. “I promise. She's our princess, too.”

Pidge nodded and let Lance help her into a pod.

Coran was adjusting settings on the pods while Keith tried to pretend he had totally escaped repeated close combat completely unscathed. Lance was already eyeing him up as the next target for medical attention. Allura was in the pod right next to her, Hunk on the princess's far side. Shiro was handling things.

And finally Pidge could rest.

Her family, best she could manage, was safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Come hang out with me!  
> http://sinkingcanoe.tumblr.com/  
> (Gen/multishipping Voltron sideblog, Pidge-centric ofc)


End file.
